188
ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY.
compressed or inflated ; linear or variously contracted between the seed ; continuous or jointed ; dehiscent or indehiscent ; membranous or woody; longitudinally one or 2-celled, or divided by transverse partitions, transversely many-celled ; with or without enclosed pulp surrounding the seed. The seed like all other parts exhibit the same want of uniformity, they are either naked or imbedded in pulp, or sometimes furnished with an arillus or large carunculus ; the embryo is either straight or curved along the edge of the cotyledons; the cotyledons are either thin and foliaceous or thick and fleshy, usually without, but occasionally furnished with a copious albumen as in Filla j a, and the section Cathartocarpus of Cassia. The only points on which they seem all to agree is in having the odd ssgments of the calyx anterior or remote from the axis. This is the only mark by which this order can always be distinguished from Rosacece, the fruit even, not being always leguminous, in one genus, Detarium, it is drupaceous.
If from Botanical, or structural peculiarities, we turn to properties we find similar varia- tions. Among the arboreous forms the wood in some is of hardest and most durable description, witness some of the Dalbergias and Acacias, in others the very reverse is the case, as in Erythrina and Agati. Nearly the whole of the tribe Papilionacece afford edible nutritious grains, (beans, pease, in one word, pulse of all kinds) while the Cassias or Ccesalpineas are distin- guished by the possession of both purgative and astringent properties, the leaves of Senna for example and the pulp which surrounds the seed of Cassia Jistula being powerful purgatives, while the bark of C. auriculata is in constant use for tanning. Some of the Mimosas yield by boiling a powerfully astringent extract (catchu) while others, abound in the purest of gum, endowed with simply emolient or mucilaginous properties: gum arabic, gum tragacanth, and gum kino, though differing so widely from each other in their properties are all the produce of this order. From a species of Alhagi a kind of Manna is procured, while the leaves of Agati grandiflora, are bitter and tonic.
Such are a few of the anomalies and contradictions presented by this order, enough I presume to show the difficulty or rather impossibility of defining satisfactorily so polymor- phous a tribe, and the necessity that exists, towards attaining a clear understanding of the whole, that its parts be considered in succession as if each formed a distinct order. This is the method followed by Bartling, who, adopting the divisions first marked out by Brown and extended by DeCandolle, has merely departed from their arrangement, in raising the suborders of these eminent Botanists to the rank of orders, perhaps an unnecessary innovation, but one which 1 intend partially to follow here, as enabling me to give a clearer exposition of the whole, and in less space, than if I attempted it in the mass. Before however proceeding to characterise in detad the suborders referable to the Indian flora I shall extract from. DeCandolle's Prodromus, a table, (see below) presenting at one view, a clear and comprehen-
fiKBORDlNES,
f Papilionacece. Calycis lobi distincti.
Stamina perigyna. Corolla papilionacea.
Phyllolobae
seu
cstyledonibus folia- ceis.
I. Sophoee^;.
Leg uminosje.
CtlRVEMBRIjE,
nempe A
embryonis radicula
super loborum com- missuram infiexa, seu Pleuroihizea;.
Sarcolobae sseu
cotyledonibus crasso-carnosis.
Rectembri/E, nempe I embryonis radicula '. recta,
Swi RTZIEjE.
Calycis vesicaeformis aut petalis pautis 1
MiMOSEjE.
( Sepala et petala ante
J CesalpiNe^e. j Petala per aestivatio- ! nem imbricata, sta- (. minaque perigyna.
TRIBUS.
Legumen continuum. Stamina libera. ......
Legumen continuum. Stamina filamentis
-( concreta .... II. LoTEiE.
j Legumen transverse ar- I ticulatum Stamina | fere semper inter se ( filamentis concreta. . III. HedysarEjE. [ Legumen polyspermum dehiscens. Folia cir- rbosa , primordialia
alterna IV. Vicie.e.
Legumen polyspermum dehiscens. Folia non cin hosa , primordia- lia opposita V. Phaseole^.
Legumen l-2-spetmum indebiscens. Folia (. non cirrhosa VI. Dalbergie^e.
lobi indistincti. Stamina hypogyna. Corolla 0
2 ". VII. Swartzieje
VIII. Mimose.iE.
explicationem valvata Stamina hypogyna. ( Sepala et petala per C Stamina filamentis varie I aestivationem im- -s connexa IX.
-{ bricata. ( Stamina libera X.
j Sepala ante explicationem iudistincta. Calyx
( vesicffiformis. Petala 0... XI. Detarie^,
Geoffrey. Cassie<e.
